Line #20 Literature/After2003


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7	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/after.jpg]]
8
9	->''"School has become a prison. No one knows why. There's no way to stop it."''
10	-->--The back cover
11
12	''After'' is a YoungAdultLiterature novel written by Francine Prose.
13
14	Tom is a sophomore at Central High, one of the “smart jocks”, a normal guy at a normal school. And during math class, that normalcy shatters. A school the next town over is shot up by angry students, and in the wake of this tragedy, school at Central begins to change. A grief and crisis counselor, Dr Willner, takes over, instituting new rules at every turn. Metal detectors, random searches, a ban on things like chewing gum, hats, even the color red. At first the students make their compromises, but when those who do not comply begin to vanish, Tom realizes that nothing good can come of sacrificing freedom for safety.
15
16	Not to be confused with ''Fanfic/{{After}}'' by Anna Todd, another YA novel with the same title.
17	----
18	!!Provides examples of:
19	%%* ANaziByAnyOtherName
20	* BigBrotherIsWatching: Referenced by name after Wilner tells Henry and his parents to meet them the next day when they're in a totally different town.
21	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Wilner has completely taken over Central, and the minds of most of the students' parents. And it's only a matter of time before he has the remaining students taken to Operation Turnaround. But our collective heroes (Tom, his father, his stepmother, Rebecca, her family, and Tom's remaining friend) all make tracks to someplace safe and remote.]]
22	* {{Brainwashed}}: The parents are brainwashed into thinking Wilner's security measures are justified by his emails.
23	* ChildHater: Tom suspects that part of the reason Wilner wants to brainwash and/or punish the students of Central is that he has a hatred of teenagers. Tom narrates how he finds this both a relief and a red flag. Although he can take comfort in it's nothing he did, it bothers him Wilner hates him without even knowing what kind of person Tom is.
24	* DeceasedParentsAreTheBest: In wake of Wilner steadily taking over the school, Tom looks back on how his mother was a good mom and a great problem solver in life. In his mind, if only she were alive, she would've figured out how to fight back Wilner's influence on the school.
25	%%* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The entire scenario of the book's premise seems to bear a passing resemblance to the Holocaust. Wilner fits the Hitler archetype while the collective teenage students act as his target. Tom and his posse leaving for someplace free from Wilner's influence parallels immigration in order to avoid persecution in their own country.]]
26	* DomesticAbuse: Strongly implied. Tom's father's girlfriend works selling flowers and plants and personally met Wilner's wife when she sold her petunias. But not long ago, she witnessed as Wilner forced his sobbing wife to return the petunias, disgusted at his controlling behavior.
27	* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: Wilner and his allies don't believe that teenagers are capable of making decisions for themselves. Or at least, not good decisions anyway.
28	* FromBadToWorse: The new rules get progressively more insane.
29	* GodzillaThreshold: Our protagonists view their parents as this, believing that if things get worse, they can always call on them for help. The only reason they didn't sooner was because they ''knew'' how ugly it would get if they got their parents involved. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, the fact Wilner brainwashes them to be compliant using propaganda e-mail leaves our heroes feeling helpless that their only trump card has [[AdultsAreUseless slipped through their fingers]].]]
30	* GoodStepmother: Tom may have felt distant from his father's girlfriend in the beginning of the story, but she's an overall decent person. [[spoiler: Towards the end, after [[FireForgedFriendship bonding over the fear of]] BigBrotherIsWatchingYou, she and Tom bond beautifully to the point where she squeezes his shoulder the way his mother used to.]]
31	* InsaneTrollLogic: The new rules; as things get progressively worse, the school begins banning anything that could possibly be construed as rebellious, surveying everything students do, and even sending rebels to [[ReleasedToElsewhere "Operation Turnaround"]]... all while claiming that it's for their own good.
32	* LovableJock: Many of the main characters fall into a clique of sorts called the "smart jocks". They are devoted to basketball, but unlike the DumbJock clique, they are kind and do reasonably well in school.
33	* MissingMom: Tom's mother is dead.
34	%%* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Most of the protagonists.
35	* ParentalBetrayal: Many, due to their having been brainwashed. [[spoiler:Silias' parents are by far the worst; they willingly send Silias to what amounts to a concentration camp.]]
36	* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The school slowly starts to try to brainwash the students to believe this. One of the protagonist's friends points out that the documentary playing on the bus that day is on UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and was stating that the atom bombs were dropped on Japanese ''wilderness areas''. He says, "Dude, Listen to that. I don't think that's true." followed by another friend asking, "[[LampshadeHanging How stupid]] ''[[LampshadeHanging were]]'' [[LampshadeHanging we]]?"
37	* TheQuisling: It's mentioned that some students will report others. [[spoiler: Subverted with Rebecca; Tom suspects she might be one, but she was actually the graffiti artist.]]
38	* ReleasedToElsewhere: Any students who try to fight back get sent to "[[OperationBlank Operation Turnaround]]".
39	* TheStoner: Silas. [[ReleasedToElsewhere Which doesn't end well for him...]]

Context Literature / After2003